French budget deficit down to 9 bln euros in Jan.

France, already under fire to respect EU financial rules, saw its budget deficit narrowed to 9.4 billion euros (10.3 billion U.S. dollars) in January, reaching the lowest level since 2010, Budget Ministry's data showed on Friday.

Struggling to cut public expenditure to reach healthy finances, the government reported 1.5 billion euros less in its spending with its total value stood at 31.1 billion euros over the period when compared to January 2014.

As to revenue, the ruling Socialists collected 24.8 billion euros in January, up 6.9 percent from the same month in the previous year thanks to a 7-percent growth in fiscal net receipts, the ministry said.

Having been blamed of failing to promote growth, bring down wide budget gap, and trim record high joblessness rate, French President Francois Hollande promised to put the country's finances in order by squeezing public spending and improving competitiveness to reach a deficit of 4.1 percent of GDP this year.

Hollande postpones by two years to 2017 a reduction of its budget deficit below 3 percent of GDP, the rate mandated by EU to have healthy finances. Endit